Wood County Assessor is making progress in addressing deficit
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PARKERSBURG - Cuts made by the Wood County Assessor's office are making progress in addressing a shortfall in the office's Assessor's Valuation Fund, according to a public certified accountant who is auditing the office.
Wood County Assessor John Kelly and CPA Brett Burns of Perry and Associates met with the Wood County Commission this week to discuss cuts that have been made to address a deficit in the Assessor's Valuation Fund that was brought to the commission's attention this past summer as well as plans for the office to pay back the county.
The office overspent its budget in 2022-23, 23-24 and 24-25. Kelly took office in 2025. Burns has conducted an audit of the Assessor's Office as cuts were being made.
Officials have said the office was facing a $357,000 deficit at the end of the current fiscal year.
With cuts and more being made in the office as well as projected money expected to be coming into the office, the office will still need an additional $59,575 to be funded for this year.
The assessor's office would have to look at requesting that money from the county.
"We will see what we need to cover this year, continue monitoring the rest of this year and figure out where we are at actually," Burns said. "Revenue can come in higher, expenses could come in technically lower or vice-versa.
"We will then figure out what we need to start (the new fiscal year) on July 1."
Burns said the infusion of around $60,000 from the county is needed to keep the office running for the current fiscal year unless additional cuts were made right now.
"We think revenue will continue to come in at a healthy rate," he said."These guys have cut substantially. They appear to be committed to lowering spending across the board, honestly even more than I thought was possible in non-payroll areas."
Payroll and insurance make up 90 percent of their budget, he said.
As far as cuts made, Kelly said they have cut two employee positions which resulted in a $144,000 savings and they have another employee who is looking for other work and once they find another job, they will eliminate that position. Since the employee was returning military coming home from a deployment, they have to keep his position in place for six months. If the employee finds employment before that, they can leave on their own.
"Salaries are where most of our cuts have come," Kelly said.
They have cut back on training and there will be no travel to conferences. Only essential training will be covered and they would only go to the individual session in a single day.
"We are not sending anyone to a hotel or motel to stay for training," Kelly said. "We aren't doing any of that."
They are making cuts to their printing budget where only single tone documents will be used. They had previous expenses that utilized color on a number of printed documents. Kelly said they are looking at the weight of the paper.
"We are cutting back on everything that we can cut back on," Kelly said. "We have been very successful.
"We are watching every dollar we have to put out there."
Kelly said there were other cuts considered that would have affected his office's ability to adequately do the job they are tasked with and he decided against doing those cuts.
"We have taken our staff as low as we can take them," he said.
There are still expenses that have to be met for them to do their jobs, such as gas and vehicle maintenance that is needed so his appraisers can go out and assess properties.
Commission President Blair Couch said they are not raising anyone's property tax to cover this.
"Absolutely not," Kelly agreed. "Any increases in taxes will come from appraisals and new construction.
"We are not going to raise taxes across the board. We aren't going to do that."
Kelly said their office is expecting a $108,000 increase in their projected revenue which will help offset things.
"We are going to run a tight budget and that will make up any of the differences we have through normal operations we have," he said.
Kelly said eliminating the $357,000 deficit will affect their carryover from the end of the fiscal year into the next fiscal year which provides needed money for the first quarter of the new fiscal year until collections can begin in the new year.
If everything works out the way they are planning they will be at zero at the start of the next fiscal year, Kelly said.
"That is where our shortfall is really going to hit us the hardest," Kelly said. "We are going to have to borrow some money from the county to fill in that gap.
"Once the revenue starts coming in we can pay that back."
He is looking at borrowing around $155,550 from the county to fill that gap which his office would pay back fully by the end of his current term.
Burns will continue to monitor the situation and keep track of the potential payoff.
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com